Thanks for the clarifications, though I want to point out that you didn't address the part of my question regarding OVAs (original video animation) specifically.

It feels like it would be a shame to exclude works of animation just because they happened to be released as part of a serialized television program. How much do the circumstances under which something was released ultimately matter as far as inclusion goes? Must it be theatrical? What about video-only? Internet-only? If both very short, odd films by auteurs AND jumbo-sized extravaganzas produced by thousands of people are prime for inclusion, what really makes serialized TV animation different? I'm not seeing any possible criterion other than "time required to view may be significant".

Granted, total run-time could well be a good reason in and of itself. Perhaps, similar to how massive series such as Merry Melodies will be ultimately represented by a select number, some of the stand-out TV animation could be similarly represented? For instance, you'll find particular episodes of Adventure Time that exhibit the show's willingness to occasionally experiment with technique, aesthetic, and format.

I looked at my shelves and realised some more of my favourites were missing:

Voices of a Distant Star (Makoto Shinkai, 2002, 30min). A beautiful story of love at a distance, which acknowledges relativistic time dilation; a true gem.

Time of Eve: The Movie (Yasuhiro Yoshiura, 2008-2010, 106min). This movie is the combined version of a 6-episode OVA, with additional footage; it is thus a complete standalone work not requiring pre-knowledge of the earlier version. It's about the place of androids in society.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Mamoru Hosoda, 2006, 101min). A girl has to learn that going back in time to change things can be far less straightforward than she realised.

Wolf Children (Mamoru Hosoda, 2012, 117min). A human woman who had children with a wolf man (who died shortly afterwards) tries to find a place where she can bring them up alongside the human world; a most affecting story - highly recommended.

Titan A.E. (Don Bluth & Gary Goldman, 2000, 91min). The Drej have destroyed the Earth; some remaining humans are racing to follow up a clue to a means for the survival of humanity before they are finally destroyed by the Drej themselves.

"Being human, having your health; that's what's important."(from: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi )"As long as we're all living, and as long as we're all having fun, that should do it, right?"(from: The Eccentric Family )Avatar: Celebrating Radio Eva at 10 (details); Past avatars.Can't wait for 3.0+1.0? - try Afterwards... my post-Q Evangelion fanfic (discussion)

LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH SUGGESTIONS FROM DK VINE, EVAGEEKS AND SONIC STADIUM MESSAGE BOARDS, AS OF 17:09 - 14/APRIL/2017.

IN ADDITION, A SHORT Q&A SECTION HAS BEEN ADDED TO CLEAR UP QUESTIONS OR DETAILS THAT I NEGLECTED TO EXPLAIN EARLIER ON.

Once again, I cannot thank everyone who's contributed to this enough, even if I had a hundred corgis to give to you all. Your suggestions are encouraging me to check out more animated fare I might have otherwise ignored, and it's giving me more determination towards getting somewhere with this project. Thank you all so much.

If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you all a question in relation to the list - do you think we should include TV episodes in the list? I know I initially said no to that idea, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder if I'm just being arbitrary. I'll post the best argument I've heard towards including them, and let y'all decide what would work best.

"It feels like it would be a shame to exclude works of animation just because they happened to be released as part of a serialized television program. How much do the circumstances under which something was released ultimately matter as far as inclusion goes? Must it be theatrical? What about video-only? Internet-only? If both very short, odd films by auteurs AND jumbo-sized extravaganzas produced by thousands of people are prime for inclusion, what really makes serialized TV animation different? I'm not seeing any possible criterion other than "time required to view may be significant".

Granted, total run-time could well be a good reason in and of itself. Perhaps, similar to how massive series such as Merry Melodies will be ultimately represented by a select number, some of the stand-out TV animation could be similarly represented? For instance, you'll find particular episodes of Adventure Time that exhibit the show's willingness to occasionally experiment with technique, aesthetic, and format."

If you could help me out with this, I'd really appreciate that. Thank you once again, keep contributing to this project, and have a great day.

Reichu wrote:Fantasia (1940), various directorsAwesome concept, stunning animation. No way this can't be on the list.

It bears mentioning that there is a successor/remake: Fantasia 2000 (1999, various directors, 75min). There is a remake of The Sorcerer's Apprentice using the original soundtrack, but the rest is different.

"Being human, having your health; that's what's important."(from: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi )"As long as we're all living, and as long as we're all having fun, that should do it, right?"(from: The Eccentric Family )Avatar: Celebrating Radio Eva at 10 (details); Past avatars.Can't wait for 3.0+1.0? - try Afterwards... my post-Q Evangelion fanfic (discussion)

I've seen it, but it isn't must-see like the original was. BTW, the Sorcerer's Apprentice portion is a remaster, not a remake. It's included as a callback to Walt's original idea for Fantasia as a regular event with segments that would rotate in and out.

LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH SUGGESTIONS FROM DK VINE, EVAGEEKS AND SONIC STADIUM MESSAGE BOARDS, AS OF 23:52 - 18/APRIL/2017.

This update comes with a possibly substantial change to the rules: you can now suggest episodes for TV shows. After much thinking about it, discussing it with you guys and with people elsewhere, I've decided to include TV episodes into the list. However, like with the animated shorts, only five for every fifty will be included in the final list in order to prevent the possibility of overcrowding (and that's the maximum, whereas the reality will only have one or two episodes per show being included).

Once again, an incredible amount of thanks goes out to everyone involved for their suggestions and feedback. I want this project to be as good as it can possibly be, and the reception so far is going a long way towards ensuring that becomes a reality. Thank you all. Keep on contributing. Have a great day.

FrDougal9000 wrote:I've decided to include TV episodes into the list. However, like with the animated shorts, only five for every fifty will be included in the final list in order to prevent the possibility of overcrowding (and that's the maximum, whereas the reality will only have one or two episodes per show being included).

I'm not sure how to approach this. Is the idea that, in effect, worthy shows are included but only representative episodes are listed, or that stand-out episodes from otherwise mediocre shows are eligible?

For instance, I would classify Monster and FLCL as must-see shows, but struggle to select stand-out episodes to represent either, whereas the first episode of Elfen Lied and the last episode of School Days are pretty iconic, but represent shows that many despise overall (though not I).

Also, a great episode may only reveal its greatness in context (whatever selection you might make for Neon Genesis Evangelion would probably fall into this category).

"Being human, having your health; that's what's important."(from: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi )"As long as we're all living, and as long as we're all having fun, that should do it, right?"(from: The Eccentric Family )Avatar: Celebrating Radio Eva at 10 (details); Past avatars.Can't wait for 3.0+1.0? - try Afterwards... my post-Q Evangelion fanfic (discussion)

FrDougal9000 wrote:I've decided to include TV episodes into the list. However, like with the animated shorts, only five for every fifty will be included in the final list in order to prevent the possibility of overcrowding (and that's the maximum, whereas the reality will only have one or two episodes per show being included).

Would it not be more prudent to list the series as a whole, rather than peacemeal by episode? As pwhodges mentioned, it's difficult to pick out episodes of a series out of context. As context in anime is everything.

For example, Gundam Wing, G Gundam, Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, and Mobile Suit Gundam would be separate because they are different series of Gundam intellectual property, with SEED and SEED Destiny being two separate seasons of one show, and all of which I would recommend.

Voted in college to be Most likely to Take Over the World, how to do that however, will require at leastFour Evangelions. Thanks for the idea Misato-san!"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Said at the beginning of the nuclear age by J. Robert Oppenheimer."That which does not kill us makes us stronger." Words of Wisdom from German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

It may be that the idea is that only amounts of animation similar to a feature film (sit down and watch of an evening) are acceptable. This would make the whole of FLCL or War in the Pocket acceptable, but not any longer shows. The solution is probably to admit that these are different media by their nature, and have separate lists. The few odd borderline cases (short-run OVAs that are released as episodes and then as a single film, for instance) could be decided on an individual basis.

"Being human, having your health; that's what's important."(from: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi )"As long as we're all living, and as long as we're all having fun, that should do it, right?"(from: The Eccentric Family )Avatar: Celebrating Radio Eva at 10 (details); Past avatars.Can't wait for 3.0+1.0? - try Afterwards... my post-Q Evangelion fanfic (discussion)

pwhodges wrote:I'm not sure how to approach this. Is the idea that, in effect, worthy shows are included but only representative episodes are listed, or that stand-out episodes from otherwise mediocre shows are eligible?

The idea I think I had in mind (that again, I probably should have communicated better) was to list TV episodes that either did something unique in its production or had a massive impact on the medium in some way. It wasn't to list the best written/fan favourite episodes of a series, or to represent a show through it being listed, but to show individual episodes that could be seen as just as valid as short films for what they tried to do.

I'll use the TV episodes I've included myself as an example.

Cowboy Bebop: Pierrot Le Fou was chosen primarily for it being one of two episodes in a cel-animated series to be entirely digitally animated, and how this allows for previously undoable camerawork (the shaky cam, for instance), a greater blend between 2D animation and 3D animation, and so on. Bebop is a series mostly full of self-contained episodes, but I chose Pierrot in particular for disproving the age old myth that digital animation is automatically worse than cel animation - and back in 1998, at that!

Batman TAS: Two Face - Part 1 comes from a show I normally can't stand, but I feel I have to include for the fantastic animation provided by TMS. Yes, arguably Feet of Clay Part II had better animation, but was held back by having to adhere to a dull script. Here, the animation is used to enhance a decent story through great character expressions, and well storyboarded shots that have come to define the episode visually. Could that final shot of Two-Face being revealed with the lightning have been anywhere near as effective if left to an inferior studio like Dong Yang (who handled Part II, which suffers greatly for that)? I think not.

Adventure Time: Food Chain is completely unlike the rest of the series in terms of visuals and storytelling, owing to it being directed by Masaaki Yuasa. It makes for a stylistically unique episode worth checking out, and one that chooses to convey a message mainly through its animation, transitions and music.

The Evangelion episodes I picked (4, 16, 22' and 25) were for how they would go for psychoanalytical sequences that used the medium of animation to get its point across, or would completely disregard the plot to focus on the characters' minds, or being completely different from what came before (4 has no background music beyond what's on the radio).

There's a lot of people who believe that for a film to be good, it just needs good writing and acting, and that perception doubles for TV shows. I can't tell you how many otherwise well written TV episodes I've watched that were marred by shoddy animation, boring storyboarding, or are told in an uninteresting way (especially for shows like The Simpsons, South Park or Batman TAS.

I want to avert this by only counting episodes that have fantastic production values, are stylistically unique, do something that has never been done before, or go on to impact the industry in some way. I hope this helps, and also to clear up yours and DarkBluePhoenix's questions. Hell, I should probably put that explanation in the next update for the rules.

LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH SUGGESTIONS FROM DK VINE, EVAGEEKS AND SONIC STADIUM MESSAGE BOARDS, AS OF 09:50 - 23/APRIL/2017.

Once more, I can't thank everyone enough for their contributions, suggestions and feedback. We're literally one film away from 450 films, which is both insane and incredible at the same time. At the same time, it's encouraged me to go check out a lot more animated films than I normally would have otherwise, so thank you for inspiring me to watch some of the awesome films in the list. For this update, however, in response to the allowing of TV episodes, I have this point to make (as made on a forum elsewhere).

A CLARIFICATION ON WHAT TV EPISODES TO ALLOW:

A few people were asking how TV episodes are counted; do they suggest stand-out episodes of mediocre shows, do they represent shows through an episode, what episodes to suggest, etc. It's naturally going to cause a lot of confusion and could easily lead to the kind of argument-inducing nonsense that had me not include TV episodes at first. So, what kind of TV episodes will count?

The idea I think I had in mind (that again, I probably should have communicated better) was to list TV episodes that either did something unique in its production or had a massive impact on the medium in some way. It wasn't to list the best written/fan favourite episodes of a series, or to represent a show through it being listed, but to show individual episodes that could be seen as just as valid as short films for what they tried to do.

I'll use the TV episodes I've included myself as an example.

Cowboy Bebop: Pierrot Le Fou was chosen primarily for it being one of two episodes in a cel-animated series to be entirely digitally animated, and how this allows for previously undoable camerawork (the shaky cam, for instance), a greater blend between 2D animation and 3D animation, and so on. Bebop is a series mostly full of self-contained episodes, but I chose Pierrot in particular for disproving the age old myth that digital animation is automatically worse than cel animation - and back in 1998, at that!

Batman TAS: Two Face - Part 1 comes from a show I normally can't stand, but I feel I have to include for the fantastic animation provided by TMS. Yes, arguably Feet of Clay Part II had better animation, but was held back by having to adhere to a dull script. Here, the animation is used to enhance a decent story through great character expressions, and well storyboarded shots that have come to define the episode visually. Could that final shot of Two-Face being revealed with the lightning have been anywhere near as effective if left to an inferior studio like Dong Yang (who handled Part II, which suffers greatly for that)? I think not.

Adventure Time: Food Chain is completely unlike the rest of the series in terms of visuals and storytelling, owing to it being directed by Masaaki Yuasa. It makes for a stylistically unique episode worth checking out, and one that chooses to convey a message mainly through its animation, transitions and music.

The Evangelion episodes I picked (4, 16, 22' and 25) were for how they would go for psychoanalytical sequences that used the medium of animation to get its point across, or would completely disregard the plot to focus on the characters' minds, or being completely different from what came before (4 has no background music beyond what's on the radio).

There's a lot of people who believe that for a film to be good, it just needs good writing and acting, and that perception doubles for TV shows. I can't tell you how many otherwise well written TV episodes I've watched that were marred by shoddy animation, boring storyboarding, or are told in an uninteresting way (especially for shows like The Simpsons, South Park or Batman TAS.

I want to avert this by only counting episodes that have fantastic production values, are stylistically unique, do something that has never been done before, or go on to impact the industry in some way. I hope this helps you guys suggest interesting TV episodes.

Either way, keep on suggesting, contributing and giving feedback, and I'll do what I can to keep improving what I can. Thanks once again, and have a great day.

What's up with the latest post being almost entirely a copy-paste of your previous one? (Seems slightly revised, but the egregious Batman:TAS error I pointed out is still there. In any case, you should edit the original post instead of doubling up.)

If looking for things done really differently )for the time) I would have thought Eva24 with the huely long pause.

Also the first episode of Texhnolyze with no word spoken for 14 minutes, as I recall.

"Being human, having your health; that's what's important."(from: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi )"As long as we're all living, and as long as we're all having fun, that should do it, right?"(from: The Eccentric Family )Avatar: Celebrating Radio Eva at 10 (details); Past avatars.Can't wait for 3.0+1.0? - try Afterwards... my post-Q Evangelion fanfic (discussion)

Reichu wrote:What's up with the latest post being almost entirely a copy-paste of your previous one? (Seems slightly revised, but the egregious Batman:TAS error I pointed out is still there. In any case, you should edit the original post instead of doubling up.)

I've done this topic in other forums (hence why each update mentions DK Vine and Sonic Stadium), and I felt the post I'd made was a good enough clarification to include it with the update. I ended up including it in the update here, due to copy pasting posts from one forum to the next out of habit. It honestly didn't occur to me that it would seem like double-posting. I'm not sure if I should just delete the update post and just edit the previous one I made, considering that was intended to answer a forum user's question. If you feel I should still change it, then that's fair enough.

Also, I was aware that Feet of Clay's 2 parts were animated by different studios, but I suppose I didn't word that very well in the original post (nor did I correct it). Sorry about that. If you'd like, I can at least add the correction to the TAS error. Thanks for pointing that out, sorry again for the confusion, and have a good day.

So it's been a week since I last updated this thread, and you might be wondering if I've got new movies or shorts to put up there. To tell you the truth, I haven't had the time to check due to being back in college. I was on Easter holidays when I started this thread, so I had plenty of time to look into things, answer questions, list films, etc. But now that I'm back at college (and in the last couple of weeks, to boot), I've been trying to hand in assignments, finish projects and get shit done.

Because of that, I won't be able to start updating things again until the 10th of May, since that's when I'll have everything done and I can go back to working on things here. In the meantime, if y'all could give me more suggestions for films/shorts/whatnot to put into the list, I'll do my best to catalogue them and update the list as soon as possible. Thanks for understanding, and I'll see you in a week and a bit. Have a great day, everyone!

LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH SUGGESTIONS FROM DK VINE, EVAGEEKS AND SONIC STADIUM MESSAGE BOARDS, AS OF 11:25 - 10/MAY/2017.

Yes, I'm finally back! College is done and over with, so I've got more free time to keep working on this project, watching more animated films, taking suggestions, and figuring out ideas for where to go in certain areas!

First off, I'd like to once again thank everyone who has contributed to this project over the last month. Seriously, in the last month or so, you've collectively suggested enough films, episodes, music videos and whatnot that we're just about to break over 500 FILMS! It is beautifully insane that we've managed to come so far in such a short amount of time. We're not done yet (by a long shot), but I wanted to thank you all for contributing to this project. Thank you.

Also, to make these updates slightly more interesting, I'm going to actively ask for advice for a particular topic. I'm quite laissez faire when it comes to logging suggestions for films (apparently, someone was actually shocked that I logged Charlotte's Web 2), but I tend to be unsure about my own ideas for what could go in the list. Not because they're bad ideas, but because there's an aspect about the work that presents an odd quandary. So, I'm going to put this to you guys and see what y'all think.

Today's film I'm not sure about:

Dragon's Lair (1983), dir. Don Bluth

Dragon's Lair is a video game; one of the most iconic and fondly remembered games from the early 1980's. It's a game that is renowned for its use of animation in a time when every other game was using minimalist sprites to represent characters and worlds. It's a game that arguably saved Don Bluth's studio from going under after union strikes and Secret of NIMH under-performing. It's a game that gave birth to the laserdisc game, in which players would have to activate QTEs in time to animated footage (as seen in the likes of Cliff Hanger, Road Blaster and Space Ace).

But would you count it as an animated film? On one hand, it is animated and is an important note in the history of animation through it being combined with video games (along with saving the Bluth studios). On the other hand, it's designed around gameplay mechanics (you can die, score system, number of lives) and was made first and foremost as a video game (unlike something like Cliff Hanger, which used footage from Lupin III films from a few years prior).

In general, you could count FMV games or interactive movies under this dilemma, but I thought I'd use Dragon's Lair since it's the most famous example of this genre. Let me know what you think, and I'll see what I'll end up doing.

LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH SUGGESTIONS FROM DK VINE, EVAGEEKS AND SONIC STADIUM MESSAGE BOARDS, AS OF 15:29 - 16/MAY/2017.

Welp, we've finally done it. We've gone over the 500 films barrier. Again, this is all still in the planning stage, so I won't consider it this being finished until we've reached around 2000 films. Nevertheless, I'd like to thank you all again for your contributions. Even though I've said this before, I think it needs reiterating that you are all awesome for doing what you can in helping this project get anywhere beyond what it might have started off as. Thank you.

To make these updates somewhat more interesting, I'll post a list of the films/episodes that have been added to the list (which will still be in bold on the big list above, but it's nice to keep track of things for those who don't want to trawl through that behemoth):

On the subject of last week's question: should I include FMV games or interactive movies like Dragon's Lair? I've decided not to, after asking a couple of friends and considering this well-thought out reply from elsewhere:

"It was intended to be a game first and foremost, and just cause it has 2d animation in it I don't think that should make it qualify as a film. It was intended to be interacted with and not watched passively, and while you can do that, it wasn't the original intent.

It's comparable to a game like Heavy Rain or something to me. The core concept is the same, you're just pressing the buttons at the right time or going in a certain direction and then a preset animation plays to tell the story, but I wouldn't call that a film and I don't think many other people would either."

Thank you for helping to come to some sort of conclusion on the matter (at least for the moment, though things can always change).

Now, for this week's update, I've got a subsection of films/shows that I'm not sure about:

This came come up recently when one of the forum-posters recommended a good number of productions where puppets interacted with live-action actors, especially Jim Henson-handled works like The Muppets, Dark Crystal and many others I can't currently recall. And I want to hear your thoughts: Does this count as animation?

Considering that I'm counting live-action films if the animated elements interact regularly enough with the live-action elements and are distinctly recognized as being different from humans, I can see why someone might think these should be included on the list. I admit that I don't really have a counter-argument towards this, but I'm still unsure about including. What do you think? Please let me know so I can come to come conclusion on the topic.

Thank you all once again, keep contributing to the project, and have a great day!